scientific

In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers have harnessed a gene-editing tool to correct a disease-causing gene mutation in human embryos, preventing the mutation from passing to future generations.

Despite all of the breathtaking photos, video, observations, and scientific discoveries that have happened so far on Mars — thanks to probes, rovers, and the like — there’s one burning question that remains completely unanswered: was there ever life there?

October is a sweet month for the scientific community. That’s when the annual Nobel Prize in physics is announced. Tuesday’s award — in a pleasant surprise for particle physicists — went to Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo and Arthur B. McDonald of Queen’s University in Canada for their groundbreaking research on neutrino oscillations.

It isn’t happening just yet, but a new scientific paper shows that it’s possible, and perhaps even advantageous, to make batteries out of organic biological materials that have the added benefit of being cheap, environmentally friendly, and easy to produce, reports CNET.

Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire taught a machine to ‘see’ the differences between galaxies in Hubble images. The computer algorithm was sophisticated enough to tell the difference between two different types of galaxies, a skill that only humans had before. To see how the computer did, flip through our gallery above.

The initial tests of the algorithm went quite well. So well, in fact, that the researchers hope to expand the scope of the project. “Our aim is to deploy this tool on the next generation of giant imaging surveys where no human, or even group of humans, could closely inspect every piece of data,”James Geach, one of the team members said. “But this algorithm has a huge number of applications far beyond astronomy, and investigating these applications will be our next step,”

Soon, biologists, geologists and many other -ists might be able to use a computer to sift through data faster than humans ever could. The team sees potential applications in airport security and even medicine, where computers could help spot tumors. It’s an amazing new tool. But if you’re still interested in citizen science, don’t worry. There are still a lot of opportunities to have fun, do science, and fight against the rise of the machines.